Diana Mitrea

Diana, a Romanian native, joined Dewpoint Therapeutics in the summer of 2019. Diana’s academic background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemical Engineering from Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, and postdoctoral training in Structural Biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis TN.

Prior to joining Dewpoint, Diana was a Staff Scientist at St. Jude Children’s Hospital, where she managed several interdisciplinary high-risk / high-reward projects centered on the structure-function relationship of biomolecular condensates, and their implications in nucleolar function, ALS and cancer.

Diana’s fascination with the biology and structure-function relationship of biomolecular condensates started during her postdoctoral training in Dr. Richard Kriwacki’s lab, when she discovered that the multifunctional protein nucleophosmin (NPM1) plays a central role in the formation of liquid-like, complex macromolecular networks. These networks represent the structural basis for the assembly of the granular component of the nucleolus, and contribute to regulation of ribosome biogenesis and stress sensing. Diana contributed multiple original research and review articles to the field of biomolecular condensates.